The present invention relates to a process for preparing an alcohol from an olefin, wherein the olefin is reacted with syngas in the presence of a hydroformylation catalyst.
The synthesis of xe2x80x9coxoxe2x80x9d alcohols by hydroformylating an olefin followed by the hydrogenation thereof is known. As described in Chapter 1 of Falbe""s xe2x80x9cNew Syntheses with Carbon Monoxidexe2x80x9d (Springer-Verlag, 1980), the synthesis involves the preparation of an aldehyde by the following reaction:
Rxe2x80x94CHxe2x95x90CH2+CO+H2xe2x86x92Rxe2x80x94CH4xe2x80x94CH2xe2x80x94CHO
The hydroformylation reaction is typically conducted in the presence of a homogeneous catalyst on the basis of a transition metal, such as cobalt, nickel, palladium or platinum. This reaction is also extensively described in Chapter 4 of xe2x80x9cCarbonationxe2x80x9d by Colquhoun et al (Plenum Press, 1991).
A secondary reaction occurring simultaneously involves the hydrogenation of the oxo-aldehyde into an oxo-alcohol. The extent of this secondary reaction can be increased via various measures, although it must be borne in mind that these measures may lead to many undesirable side-products (Falbe, Chapter 1.5.2.2.1).
Some homogeneous catalysts have sufficient activity to hydrogenate the in-situ formed oxo-aldehyde into the desired oxo-alcohol. However, in most instances a separate post-hydrogenation finishing step of the oxo-alcohol is essential due to quality considerations. It therefore remains desirable to be able to produce alcohols in a single-step process without the necessity of a post-hydrogenation finishing step.
Accordingly, the present invention provides a process for the preparation of an alcohol from an olefin, wherein the olefin is reacted with syngas in the presence of a catalyst system comprising a homogeneous hydroformylation catalyst and a heterogeneous catalyst comprising copper on a support.